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Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Life & Times of Louis & Amber - Tidbits

Recently our lives have been so crazy that it is difficult to carve out time to post. We had two weeks of Point of Grace Hope Team 1, which was filled with long days of hard work. The day they left I had a speaking engagement in the morning, then made another batch of bricks in the afternoon. The next day I preached twice, along with having the boys over for a Bible study. This week we've been trying to make enough bricks to finish off the Niehoff's house, as well as complete the installation of the sewer line.

Amber has kept herself busy keeping me and the kids in line. She picks up so much of the slack and does whatever comes up. The Saturday that I was speaking she had Kate and Atang here at our house, along with Lindie Niehoff and our two kids. The next day she made lunch for the boys after our Bible study and church. So she really is a trooper.

I am posting this because our 5 year old daughter Meredith is now a philosopher, gladly sharing her wisdom with anyone who will listen. And I figured these need to be recorded for posterity.

1. While Kate and Atang were here Meredith caught a gecko. We found a nice little jar for it's home, but when I reminded her to keep the jar out of the sun or the lizard would die, she responded "Yeah, this little guy doesn't want to be dead for the rest of his life." -- Feel free to quote her if you'd like. It's not trademarked yet.

2. Meredith started preschool 2 days per week. Yesterday was her first day. From a personal standpoint, sending your kids off to school is not really very cool. While we intend to homeschool, we thought this age would be a good time to expose her to Afrikaans, so that when she has to take it later on, she will be better off. Anyway, on this her 2nd day of school she comes home with 2 silk worms. According to the teacher Meredith came running in from the playground in a semi-panic. "Teacher Rose, I need a box" she said. "Why?" asks Teacher Rose. "I need it for my snails" (she is a bit confused, yes). The teacher tells me that she warned Meredith that she would need to ask Mom and Dad if it was ok first. Apparently Meredith gives her this little wave and says "Oh, that won't be a problem." So she obviously knows that Mom and Dad are suckers for little creatures too.

3. When I later asked Meredith who gave her the box she says "my teacher." I asked which teacher and she responds "The one with the flat head." As if we O'Tools can say anyone else has a flat head. Have you seen my dad? And I've recently discovered it's genetic. Mine gets flatter every day.

4. Speaking of my dad, we were reading about the wise men in our Bible story tonight. Meredith says they brought gifts of "Gold, Frank, and Merle."

5. Another Meredith gem - "Mom, why do you always say 'ouch' when I step on your foot" as she intentionally steps on Amber's foot. It's like her own sadistic little version of Tickle-Me Elmo. Step on mom's foot, she says ouch.